Baby, you can't drive my cart

By john.holmes

Created 16 Nov 2012 - 9:59pm

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Put this one down as a moving violation. After the second round of the LPGA Tour’s season-ending CME Group Titleholders on Friday, Belen Mozo tweeted that she’d received a two-stroke penalty for riding on the wrong shuttle.

No doubt, Belen Mozo will be more careful in her choice of transportation on Saturday.

Put this one down as a moving violation. After the second round of the LPGA Tour’s season-ending CME Group Titleholders on Friday, Belen Mozo tweeted that she’d received a two-stroke penalty for riding on the wrong shuttle.

The Titleholders is being played for the first time at the Club at TwinEagles in Naples, Fla., which like so many Florida tracks is laid out amidst a residential community. There are long distances between several of the holes, and players are riding shuttles between nine different greens and tees. And, as she found out, riding on a shuttle not specifically designated for the players is a big no-no.

Here are Mozo’s Twitter entries describing the situation:

‏@BelenMozo[2]: Not a good day for me;(. I was hanging in there despite my poor game until I got 2stroke penalty for riding on a wrong shuttle.

‏@BelenMozo[2]: This week we have 9 shuttles from green-tee. I took a ride from shuttle that was driving my 'inside the ropes' group, who were tired.

@Belen Mozo: After that I finished w/ 2 bogeys. A lot to learn. But never giving up on keep working hard! I'll bounce back from this.

Mozo’s penalty turned her par on the 16th hole into a double bogey, and that, followed by those two closing bogeys she mentioned, gave her a 77. If there is a consolation, it’s that she wasn’t close to the lead -- she’s tied for 49th place, 14 shots behind leader Ai Miyazato.

And if Mozo was miserable, she’s got company – her penalty might not even have been the most unusual one of the day. Sun Young Yoo – who was near the top of the leaderboard – received a one-shot penalty after her round because her arm wasn’t high enough when she made a penalty drop after her ball had gotten lodged in a bush on the 14th hole.

Yoo, one of three first-round co-leaders, thought she was only two shots back when she walked off the course. She was quickly approached by rules officials, who pointed out that her arm was not shoulder-high when she took her drop.

"I didn't try to cheat. I didn't think about my arm's height," said Yoo, who will enter the third round three shots off the lead. "It's my mistake. … I'll learn from this mistake, and next time I won't make it."

She'll tee off Saturday tied for third, three shots behind Miyazato.

UPDATE: Now the Belen Mozo situation is much clearer. She returned to Twitter on Saturday to clarify that she hopped a ride on a shuttle with her 'inside the ropes' group on a hole where the players were supposed to walk to the next tee box.

"We have 9 holes w/ shuttles & I took a ride on a hole W/O a shuttle," she tweeted. So it was my fault however; the shuttle was an official shuttle but not for players. They told me to ride w/ them & I didn't think twice."